Board of Directors

Debra Guerin Beresini
Director

Beresini is an experienced leader, manager, investor and entrepreneur. In 1997, she co-founded invencor, inc., based in the San Francisco Bay Area and has since served as its CEO. Invencor manages debt and equity funds, assists entrepreneurs in building growth companies, and consults with lending institutions. Beresini currently sits on the boards of AGIS Networks, Hawaii Biotech, and HIBEAM, a Hawai’i-based business accelerator. She is a member of the advisory board of the University of Hawai'i's Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship and is Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Wayne Brown Institute, an educational nonprofit focused on mentoring entrepreneurs. She is also on the Advisory Board of Belle Venture Fund. In 2013, she was named one of the “100 Most Influential Women in Silicon Valley” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. She speaks internationally at conferences, universities and to government groups on healthcare, transitioning technology to the market and advising women how to plan and achieve their career goals. Previously, she held senior positions at organizations focused on the investment, growth and financing of companies including AR&D Corp (technology transfer), US Portfolio Leasing (venture leasing), Technology Funding, Inc. (debt and equity financing) and as Senior Vice President and manager of the National Division at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). In 2000, Beresini co-founded and became Managing Director of International Venture Fund LP based in Silicon Valley.

Mark Bogart, PhD
Director

Dr. Mark Bogart is a highly successful biotech entrepreneur. He discovered and commercialized a key part of the maternal serum triple test for Down’s Syndrome carried out on pregnant women. The test became part of the standard of care for pregnant women in the first world. Dr. Bogart is an investor in over a dozen biomedical and technology companies and currently serves on the Boards of Genetic Information Management Systems, Kuehnle Agrosystems, and Hawaii Biotech, Inc. He is a partner in AppliSci Limited. Dr. Bogart received a BA from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and a PhD in a joint program between UCSD and San Diego State University. He did his post-doctoral training in Genetics at UCSD and is Board Certified in Clinical Cytogenetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and was a founding member of the American College of Medical Genetics. During his academic career in clinical and research genetics Dr. Bogart published over 50 scientific articles and received three patents. Transitioning from academics to business he started a patent management and licensing company (Biomedical Patent Management Corp.) and a diagnostic genetics laboratory (Mid-Pacific Genetics) which was subsequently sold to the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu. He has served on a number of State committees and non-profit Boards in both California and Hawaii.

D. Elliot Parks, PhD
Director and CEO

Dr. Elliot Parks is President & CEO of Hawaii Biotech Inc., and brings to the company over 30 years experience in academic research, biomedical product development, executive management, and life science investing. He is also a Managing Director at Hamilton BioVentures, has broad experience and personal knowledge of best practices in corporate governance, and brings this background to the HBI Board. Dr. Parks was CEO of Myelos Neurosciences and has served on the board of several private companies including Idun Pharmaceuticals and Transcept Pharmaceuticals. He has also served on a number of boards of nonprofit medical and research institutions and governmental bodies, including the Whittier Institute of Diabetes. Currently he serves on the boards of HiBEAM, the Hawaii Science and Technology Council, the SDSU BioScience Advisory Council, and BIOCOM.

Robert Robinson, PhD
Director

Dr. Robinson is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management at the University of Hawaii, College of Business. From 1991 to 2001, he was on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the co-author of Angel Investing: Matching Startup Funds with Startup Companies, published in 2000. In 2001, Dr. Robinson was a visiting professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. In 2002, Dr. Robinson founded UH Angels, a Hawaii-based angel investor network which invests in technology startup firms. He is on the board of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association, and several Hawaii-based tech startup companies. In 2007, Robert co-founded Kolohala Ventures, a Honolulu-based private equity firm and fund manager.

Richard Sherman, JD
Director, Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel

Mr. Sherman has forty years of experience as a licensing executive, attorney, consultant, and venture capitalist in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He is is Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals Corporation (TLOG), a public company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He is also a principal in a private SBIC Investment fund, CIP Capital, L.P. and a venture partner in the SCP/Vitalife family of funds in suburban Philadelphia.
Mr. Sherman spent more than a decade (1976-1989) as Deputy General Counsel of SmithKline Beckman Corporation (now GlaxoSmithKline), was a partner in the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP (1990-1992), and was founder and managing officer (1992-2001) of QED Technologies, Inc., a life science business consulting firm purchased in 1999 by The Omnicom Group.
Mr. Sherman has served on the Board of Directors of a number of public and private for-profit companies in the U.S. and Canada, including Biophage, Pharma Inc. (BUG), Functional Technologies, Inc., CytoMed, Inc., IBAH, Inc., Kenna Technologies, Inc., Mera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Sparta Pharmaceuticals. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Immunomedics, Inc. (IMMU).